Facebook to expand London presence with workspace for 6,000 people

Facebook is planning to more than double its office space in London, making enough room for 6,000 workers.

The social network has leased two buildings in King’s Cross, totalling almost 600,000 square feet – an increase on the 247,000-square-foot space it opened in December 2017 in Rathbone Place, central London.

Facebook has not confirmed the exact number of extra jobs it would bring to the capital, but the move will come as a positive sign with Brexit only eight months away.

Facebook’s planned offices at King’s Cross (Facebook)

Last year, the company brought 800 new jobs to the UK and expects to employ 2,300 people in London by the end of 2018 in its current sites.

Facebook’s London team is already behind the company’s enterprise collaboration tool Workplace. London is also home to the engineering team responsible for safety and security, as well as some of the virtual reality on its Oculus headsets.

“The UK is one of the best places in the world to be a technology company and we’re investing here for the long term,” said Steve Hatch, Facebook’s managing director for northern Europe.

“Many of Facebook’s most significant global products, from Workplace to social VR applications for Oculus, were developed right here in London, now our biggest engineering base outside the US.

“By the end of the year we’ll employ more than 2,300 people in the UK and every day we’re helping over four million UK businesses to grow. Today’s news reflects our commitment to the UK.”

Facebook opened its latest office near Oxford Street in December 2017 (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

London Mayor Sadiq Khan described the investment as “great news”.

“We welcome Facebook’s long-term commitment, which is further evidence that London is open for business and a world-leading destination for major tech companies,” he said.

Facebook’s presence in the King’s Cross area of London will place it in close proximity to the likes of Google, marking the start of a new tech cluster in the capital.

Digital Secretary Jeremy Wright added: “The UK is the top destination for tech investment in Europe.

“We have the talent, capital and business environment to help global companies thrive alongside our rich landscape of start-ups and scale-ups.”